Month: April 2019

Ironman Training – The Beginning

Posted by Derek on in BikeTraining, RunTraining, SwimTraining, Training

After taking 2 weeks off where I basically just did a few workouts to keep active, my Ironman Arizona training starts on Monday.

I plan to use the Be Iron Fit book. The book contains 3 different plans, each 30 weeks long. After reviewing the plans, even though my goal is to just finish the Ironman, I plan to follow the Competitive program for the running and cycling. In looking at the volumes, I am comfortable in how they start off and also with the peak weeks. I also figured that if life gets too hectic or the load too much, I can always drop down to the Intermediate or the Just Finish plans as they all follow the same phases. In the early weeks, I may also run or bike a bit more than the plan as the plans start off with rather low volumes. For example, the first workout is a Z2 run for 30 mins. I may run 45 mins (4 miles) instead.

The swimming is where I will deviate. For the swimming, I will be following the Just Finish swimming plan. In looking at the swimming in the Competitive plan, it is just too much too soon, especially with the drills. Now, I know the swimming alone in the Just Finish plan also will not help me in my Ironman, especially after the rude awakening I got in my 70.3. So, I plan to supplement the two-day-a-week swim sessions with a 3rd swim session where I just swim continuously and also with Saturday open-water swim sessions with PlayTri at least 2 days a month.

So for the plan’s swims with the drills, I will do those without using my buoyancy shorts. For the continuous swim, I will use buoyancy shorts and for the open water swims, I’ll use my full wetsuit. I would thus be swimming 3 or 4 days a week and in a mixture of with and without buoyancy help.

The one part of the Be Iron Fit plans is the focus on Z2 training. It is a type of training I love to do and it is what I think would best serve me in my quest to complete an Ironman. I will use HR for the Z2 running, but for the bike, I will use power for the Z2 cycling.

Open Water Swim Practice with the Playtri Club

Posted by Derek on in SwimTraining, Training

There were two things I was going to try and do to help improve my swimming and ensure I’m better prepared than I was for my 70.3 FL. One of those was to do more open water practice.

Playtri has a Playtri Club that among other things, does a weekly Saturday open water swim. During these swims, they have coaches that actually coach and teach you the skills needed to successfully open water swim. I wanted to practice with them before my 70.3 but the timing just wasn’t good. They only do the swims starting in late March and through September. When they started, there were only two Saturdays that I could have attended before my 70.3 and for one of these, I was out of town. I foolishly decided not to bother to do the one available practice. I don’t know if it would have changed the outcome, but I would have at least been just a bit more prepared.

I went to my first swim today with them, paying the drop-in fee of $10. I wanted to try them out before joining the club ($99/year) as I wanted to ensure that it was worth it. The lake where the swims are done is almost a one-hour drive so I would have to drive a total of two hours to do a one-hour swim.

The net result is that it was totally worth it! There were two coaches there, one worked with the advanced swimmers and the other worked on skills with the beginners. I obviously joined the beginner group. We practiced sighting and drafting on another swimmer’s hips. I need a lot of work on the drafting as I found I would easily lose the swimmer, but for the sighting, I started off rather rough, but after enough laps and practice, I saw a definite improvement during this one session.

Another benefit is that I got to swim in murky water where you can’t see anything and the only times you can see is when you are breathing. That was one of my issues in FL. I even got tired on the last lap and flipped over on my back to take a breather. This was good practice for an actual race.

While I knew I was not really prepared for the swim at 70.3 FL based on how it ended, this practice opened my eyes even more and I know without a doubt that I was not prepared.

I will be joining the club and while I will not be able to swim with them every Saturday, I figure I should get at least 2 swims a month and possibly 3. That will be a lot of practice between now and September when the stop the sessions.

Ironman 70.3 – DNF

Posted by Derek on in Race, TraithlonRace

Today was my Ironman 70.3 race in FL. The race I have spent the last 20 weeks preparing and training for. So, the most appropriate word I can find to describe my DNF (Did Not Finish) is devastating.

My race ended just 5 mins into the swim. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t DNF because I swam too slowly and missed the cut-off, nor did I have multiple flat tires on the bike, nor did I end up cramping on the run, nor did I get dehydrated, nor was the weather was too hot on the run. No, I DNF’ed 5 mins into the swim.

This was not my “A” race for the year. This was a practice race in preparation for my “A” race, Ironman Arizona in November. This was a race to get used to training 6 days a week, doing double workouts on many of those days. This was a race to prove to myself that I had a certain level of fitness to at least do half the distance and then I would ramp up even more towards the full Ironman. This was a race to help iron out any kinks before my “A” race.

So, while this race accomplished what I needed it to accomplish, it is still extremely disappointing. I did do training workouts 6 days a week. I did get up at 4:30am most days and did double workouts. I did ramp up my training load and handled it well. And yes, it did identify a major weakness as I iron out the kinks…..my swimming.

So, what went wrong today? The net result is that I basically panicked and could not get into a swimming rhythm. As to why I panicked, I don’t know the exact answer, but I have a few suspicions:

  • I think I may have started out too fast. While I can swim the distance with plenty of time to spare before the cutoff, I am used to swimming a constant, comfortably pace. I think with the race and then swimming with people around me and basically swimming to keep up with them, I may have gone out too fast. As a result I was out of breath, inhaling water, and swallowing water. I’m not accustomed to swimming different paces and thus I have no real feel for when I’m going to fast. This is very much like a runner going out too fast in a 5K or 10K race except that doing that on a swim has more dire consequences.
  • The water was dark and murky and so I couldn’t see anything while my face was in the water and so I think that made me “hurry up” to breathe so I could at least see to my sides. Oddly, I have no issue scuba diving in murky, low visibility water
  • I never practiced sighting and so when I tried to see in front, I ended up swallowing water
  • I did take a couple breathers while holding on to a kayak, but once I resumed swimming, I didn’t identify what was causing my issues and so I simply went back to my fast, hurried pace, inhaling and swallowing more water
  • Since I started in the last wave and with my stops, I realized I was dead last and that added to my urgency as I didn’t want to be last out the water

After doing this for 5 mins and finding that literally every breath resulted in my swallowing water, I realized that my day was done. I signaled to the volunteers and they towed me to the dock where my number was given and my timing chip removed. I collected my bike and gear, called my wife to let her know I had dropped out, texted a few people and then returned to my hotel.

I then spent the next few hours feeling sorry for myself and second guessing my trying to do triathlons, and especially a full Ironman. After all, if I can’t even do more than 5 mins of a Half-Ironman, what chance do I have in a full Ironman? I even went on the internet to lookup when the next Powerman (run-bike-run duathlon) was to see if perhaps I should stick to running and biking.

In the past, I have DNS (Did No Start) a half-marathon due to injury, but I have never had a DNF in any kind of race. I may have had slower times that I wanted, but I have always finished. This DNF is a new experience.

Luckily, a phone call with my wife helped get me out of this funk and I’m starting to analyze what went wrong and ensuring I have a strategy in place for the swim.

Prior to my race, I had visualized all the parts of the race from the swim exit onwards. I had a hydration and nutrition strategy for the bike and run. I had planned for what to do if I got a flat. I thought about how I would handle the hills. I had a strategy in place for the run and the forecasted hot weather. Basically, I had planned my race from the swim exit. I had taken for granted that I would get through the swim since I had been swimming 2000m multiple times a week for the last couple months and I was doing it in just under 50 mins…..well within the swim cut-off. I naively assumed I’ll just get in the water and do my normal 50min swim and then get on to the real meat of the race. The hard part of the race. 5-6 months ago, I had considered the swim the hard part of the race, but once I worked up to swimming 2000m consistently, it became the easy part in my mind and I just focused on the biking and running. I saw no need to try and swim faster or do swim drills.

I had taken the swim for granted and I had no plans nor any strategy for the swim other than to wear my wetsuit. I now realize that I could be in the best cycling or running shape, able to do the full distance, but it would all be for nothing if I can’t get through the swim.

Another sign that I had taken the swim for granted was that I had no nervousness before the swim and while waiting for my wave. I was calm and I had no butterflies in my stomach. I was feeling no different to how I would have felt before getting into the pool to swim 2000m

So, as I prepare for Ironman Arizona, I need to give the swim the attention it deserves. I need to prepare for it and have a strategy in place for when things start to go wrong. As a start, I plan to:

  • Look into a US Masters Swim program that swim at a pool that is only 5 mins from where I live. I had actually gotten the ball rolling on that before my race and I had arranged to observe a swim session this coming Friday and chat with the coach
  • There is a triathlon club in the DFW area that does weekly Saturday morning open water swims in a lake with a coach. They actually teach you, and you get to practice swimming with other people, turning at buoys, sighting etc. All the skills needed for a successful triathlon open-water swim. I had looked into them before and they had only recently resumed those sessions after winter, but there was only one I could have attended before my race and I figured why bother. They run these through September so I need to try and fit that into any IM training plan I follow.
  • I should have done some shorter triathlons before attempting a 70.3. That would have given me a chance to swim in a race locally and with less at stake. I found one local sprint triathlon in June and I will look for others before IM AZ to get as much practice as possible

I may have to end up swimming 3-4 days a week and adjusting workouts in order to open water swim on a Saturday and not treat the swim as just something I need to get through before I get on the bike and run.

Today’s race was devastating and I doubt it will ever fade from my memory, but in the end, I need to learn as much as possible from today’s failure so I can accomplish my main goal for 2019 which is to finish Ironman Arizona in November.

Ironman 70.3 Training – Week 19 – April 1 – April 7 2019

Posted by Derek on in BikeTraining, RunTraining, SwimTraining, Training, Weekly Review

This was my second to last week before my race. As expected, the workload was greatly reduced. There were a couple notable highlights though.

I was in Florida for the week and our company took part in the Mercedes Benz 5K Corporate Run. I used this to replace a planned tempo run. It was also great practice for running is warmer and more humid conditions. I managed to run the first mile in 9:40 which is a new fastest mile for me. I ended up running the 5K in 32:44.

The second highlight was my bike ride on Saturday. At the start of the ride I felt great. Even though it was supposed to be a Z2 ride, I was able to comfortably generate more power and not feel as though I was working really hard. So I decided to keep that up for at least 20 mins to see if I could get a new FTP. I ended up going pretty and for 30 mins and then I backed off and did the reminder of the ride at Z2. After the ride, both Garmin and Training Peaks reports a new FTP of 187. This is up from my last FTP of 167.

I am sure I could have gone even harder for the 20 mins so my real FTP is probably higher. Perhaps I will consider doing a proper FTP test after my race.

My run on Sunday was a bit disappointing. I was expecting to feel much fresher and I also felt a bit lethargic. I have a feeling that I was paying the price for my FTP-level 30-min ride segment on Saturday.

I am not into the last week of my training. I barely have any workouts. I have to careful what I eat as I’m not burning as much calories as I would in a typical week